TaylorMade Golf Distance+ Golf Balls vs Callaway Supersoft: Which Is Worth It?

Every weekend golfer knows the moment. You need a dozen balls, you want something that flies straight and does not cost what a tour ball costs, and you end up standing in the aisle staring at two boxes: the TaylorMade Distance+ and the Callaway Supersoft. I have bought both, more times than I like to admit. After a full season of carrying them in my push cart bag, testing them on the range and in my Saturday foursome, I can tell you they are not the same ball. The right one for you comes down to one thing: how fast you swing.

Short answer: if your driver swing is around 90 mph or better, the TaylorMade Distance+ is the ball I would grab. If you swing a little slower and you want the softest feel you can buy without spending premium money, the Callaway Supersoft wins. Both are two-piece balls built for distance and straight flight, and both sit in the same honest value tier. The differences are small, but they show up where it matters: off the tee and around the greens.

	TaylorMade Distance+	Callaway Supersoft
Feel at impact	Soft, with a firm click that tells you when you centered it	The softest feel in the value aisle, almost mushy on putts
Distance at moderate swing speed	Low-drag design, a few yards longer on my best strikes	Plenty long, but built more for launch than raw length
Distance at slower swing speed	Still good, but it wants some club speed to show its best	Low compression gets the ball up with less effort
Greenside spin	Low spin, pitches run out a little	Very low spin, chips check less
Scuff resistance	Firmer cover, fewer marks after a season	Soft cover feels great but marks up on cart paths
Color choices	White and yellow on most shelves	More colors, including bright ones
Best for	Golfers who want distance without a rock-hard feel	Golfers who want the softest feel and highest launch

On my best strikes the TaylorMade Distance+ carried a few yards further. On my bad ones, the Supersoft flew straighter. Neither one fixed my slice, and I did not expect it to.

How I Compared Them

I am a 14 handicap who plays to about that number on a good day. I walk nine holes at my home course twice a week with my push cart, and I play 18 every Saturday with the same three buddies. For this comparison I bought a dozen of each, marked them with a Sharpie, and played them on alternating rounds through the fall. I also spent a few evenings at the range ten minutes from my house, hitting driver and 7-iron side by side.

I will be honest about the limits of my testing. I do not have a launch monitor in my garage, just a putting mat and a lot of opinions. My swing speed is nothing special, maybe 92 mph with a driver on a good day, and my bad habit is a swing that gets steep when I get tired. So this is not a lab test. It is a report from a mid-handicap golfer who pays for his own balls and loses a few of them in the woods.

One more confession: I did not do this blind. I knew which ball was in play on every hole, and that knowledge can bend what you see. If anything, I tried to be harder on the TaylorMade because it was the one I expected to like. In the end, the results matched what the boxes promised, which is the only fair way to describe it.

What the Boxes Tell You

Both boxes make the same promise: long, soft, straight. The TaylorMade Distance+ leans on a low-drag dimple pattern and a high-launch design. The Callaway Supersoft leans on low compression and low spin. They take different paths to the same goal. For most of us, the engineering inside matters less than how the ball behaves when we actually hit it, but it explains what I saw on the course.

The Distance+ is built to cut through the air, which is why it held its line in the wind. The Supersoft is built to launch easily, which is why it helped my slower-swinging buddy. Neither is a gimmick. Both are honest designs for a two-piece ball at a value price, and you can feel the difference within the first five swings.

On the Course, Round by Round

One Saturday in October I played the same ball for all 18 holes, which almost never happens for me. The Distance+ stayed in play through the front nine, and on the par 5 that plays into a left-to-right breeze, my second shot carried to a spot I usually only reach with my buddy's premium ball. The feel off the putter took a hole to get used to, but by the turn I was reading putts the way I always do.

The next Saturday I did the same with the Supersoft. The launch was noticeably higher with my driver, and on the two holes where I got lazy with my tempo, the ball still flew straighter than I deserved. Around the greens it ran out more than I like, and I left two chips short because I played for check that never came. That is not the ball's fault. That is me assuming a value ball will spin like a tour ball.

I kept both in my push cart bag for the rest of the season and switched depending on the day. When I wanted feedback and a few extra yards, I played the TaylorMade. When I wanted soft feel and an easy launch, I played the Callaway. Having the choice is the real luxury, and at these prices you can afford to keep both in the garage, where Murphy the Lab has batted a few off the workbench.

Where TaylorMade Wins

The TaylorMade Distance+ is the longer ball for me, and it is not close enough to call a coin flip. The low-drag dimple pattern seems to hold the flight up in the wind, and on the holes at my home course that play into a breeze, I reached spots with the Distance+ that I had to work for with the Supersoft. It also has a firmer feel at impact, which I like. I can feel the strike, and that feedback tells me when I actually centered it and when I did not.

The cover has held up better too. The Distance+ picked up a few scuffs from cart paths and tree roots, but nothing like the marks I saw on the Supersoft after the same abuse. For a ball I am going to lose to the woods eventually, I would rather play the one that still looks respectable while it is in my bag. Around the greens, the firmer feel gives me a touch more confidence on putts, though I cannot say it rolls any truer than the Callaway.

It also seems to resist a hook a little better when I get steep, which is my miss. I cannot prove that with a number, and I will not pretend I can. But when I walked off the 18th green with the same TaylorMade ball I started with, that is the round I remembered. The ball did its job and stayed out of the trees.

Where Callaway Wins

The Callaway Supersoft is the softer ball, full stop. On putts and chips it feels almost dead off the face, which sounds like a bad thing until you hit it. That soft feel is why so many golfers over 50 carry it. One of my buddies, who swings maybe 75 mph on a good day, hits the Supersoft higher and straighter than anything else he has tried. The low compression gets the ball up without a lot of effort, and for a slower swing, that launch is worth more than a few extra yards.

The Supersoft also wins on choices. The shelf at my pro shop has it in a rack of bright colors, and my wife Carol, who does not golf, can spot the yellow one in the rough from the cart path. That is worth something when you play a course with leaves on the ground in November. The softer cover is the tradeoff. It feels great and it scuffs easier. That is the honest deal you make with this ball.

It is also the friendlier ball for a golfer who plays twice a month and just wants to have fun. The Supersoft does not punish a lazy swing the way firmer balls can. My friend who only plays when his son is in town borrowed a sleeve and bought a dozen before the round was over. That tells you more about the ball than anything I can say.

The Parts Nobody Mentions

Two things surprised me. First, neither ball spins enough to hold a firm green on a short approach. If you are used to a urethane tour ball, both of these will run out on you. I adjusted by playing more bump and run, which suits my game fine. Second, the differences between them are small enough that you should not overthink the choice. If a dozen of one is on sale at my pro shop, I buy that one and I do not lose sleep.

I also learned that my Saturday foursome cannot agree on these two. Two of my buddies swear by the Supersoft, and one will not play anything but the TaylorMade. I have stopped telling them they are wrong, because they are not. Feel is personal. The ball that sounds and feels right to you is the ball you will swing with confidence, and confidence is worth more than any dimple pattern.

Why I Keep Coming Back to These Two

I have played premium balls on borrowed time, a sleeve here and there from a buddy who buys the expensive dozen. They feel great, and they spin like crazy around the greens. But at my level, I lose enough balls that a premium dozen is a bad deal. The TaylorMade Distance+ and the Callaway Supersoft give me ninety percent of what I need at a fraction of the cost. That math is why both stay in my garage.

The other reason is simpler. I play golf to walk the course with my buddies and hit a few good shots. I do not need the ball to fix my swing, and I do not expect it to. What I need is a ball that flies predictably, feels decent, and does not make me wince when I slice it into the pond on 14. Both of these do that. That is the whole review.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy the TaylorMade Distance+ if you have a moderate swing and you want every yard you can get without paying for a tour ball. That is me. I am 58, I play to about a 14, and I need help with distance more than I need help with feel. Buy it if you want a ball that still feels soft but gives you feedback at impact, and if you would rather your cover survive a cart path.

Buy the Callaway Supersoft if your driver swing is on the slower side, if you want the softest feel money can buy at this price, or if you simply like having a bright ball you can find in the rough. If you are newer to the game or you mostly play for fun on the weekends, the Supersoft is the friendlier ball. You really cannot go wrong with either one. They are both honest value balls from two companies that know what they are doing.

The Bottom Line

After a season of playing both, here is where I landed. The TaylorMade Distance+ is the ball in my bag. It goes a little further for me, it holds up better, and the firmer feel suits my hands. The Callaway Supersoft is the ball I recommend to my buddy with the slower swing, and I keep a sleeve of them in the garage for windy days. Neither ball is going to fix a slice or add twenty yards, and anybody who tells you different is selling something.